All posts tagged Jan Vincent-Rostowski

The Polish government and central bank intervened in the currency market Friday to boost the zloty, pushing it away from a level that would trigger austerity measures.

Before Friday’s intervention, the zloty had been weakening since July as investors exited emerging markets over euro-zone sovereign debt concerns and worries about the global economy. A weak zloty inflates the country’s debts denominated in foreign currencies.

The central bank sold an undisclosed amount of foreign currencies to buy the zloty, it said in a statement. The government appeared to be back in the spot market Friday also selling euros, traders said. Read More »

Poland’s parliamentary election campaign has so far offered little beyond PR stunts, which haven’t visibly impacted voters’ preferences five weeks ahead of election day. The ruling party continues to have a commanding lead over rival conservatives.

The Civic Platform party, which has governed Poland since 2007 in a stable coalition with the Peasants’ Party, would get 32% of the vote, while the conservative Law and Justice party would get 24%, according to a poll by Homo Homini for daily Super Express. The Democratic Left Alliance would get 12%, and the ruling party’s agrarian coalition partner would get 7%. Read More »

Proposals by French and German leaders to improve governance in the euro zone would lead to little beyond meetings over a cup of coffee for euro-zone leaders twice a year, according to a Polish official. Poland currently holds the European Union’s rotating six-month presidency.

“They’ll meet twice a year, have a little coffee and call this an economic government,” Poland’s Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski, who chairs the EU’s council of economic minister, said on Polsat News television Thursday. Read More »

The euro zone’s summit Thursday was a positive step for the European Union’s single-currency bloc, but it’s just a first step in fixing the euro and Poland isn’t likely to adopt the currency for at least several more years, the country’s finance minister said Friday.

The latest comments are part of a series of euro-skeptical remarks from the Polish government, which at the beginning of its term in 2007 appeared determined to adopt the euro as fast as possible. It then stopped meeting the euro zone’s entry criteria and dropped the 2012 target without setting a new one. Read More »

Poland may not adopt the euro by the end of the next term of the president of the European Central Bank, which is set to end in 2019, Polish Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski said Tuesday.

Reporters in Brussels asked for his opinion on Mario Draghi, whom European Union finance ministers backed Monday to replace Jean-Claude Trichet as the ECB president. They suggested Mr. Draghi would be the ECB president to see Poland’s entry into the euro zone.

“He’s an outstanding economist,” Mr. Rostowski said of Mr. Draghi. “As to the second part of the question, we must change the constitution, so I don’t have this certainty.” Read More »

Poland’s Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski survived a vote of no confidence on Thursday. It was easy, not only because the ruling coalition has a stable majority in the lower house of parliament. It was easy mainly because his opponents attacked him using internally conflicting arguments, which the government comfortably dismissed as utter nonsense.

The ruling coalition, since it took power in 2007, has carefully avoided any drastic measures to cut spending for fear its public approval ratings would decline. These policy choices have largely been responsible for Poland’s yawning deficits and the growth of debt much faster than under previous governments.

The opposition from both left and right Wednesday questioned those policy choices, naturally. But both the conservatives and the socialists also argued Mr. Rostowski should have taken steps that would make matters even worse. Read More »

Poland has the most balanced public finances in the European Union over the medium and long term, Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski said Tuesday. The market doesn’t agree just yet, keeping yields on Polish bonds above those on debt issued by the neighboring Czech Republic.

Poland’s general government deficit is expected at 7.9% of gross domestic product for last year, the highest level in modern history and sharply above the European Union’s 3% limit. The country’s public debt, measured in accordance with EU rules, is already estimated above 55% of GDP—relatively low compared with the euro-zone average of 80%, but high for a country still catching up with those in the EU’s west.

The Czech Republic’s 2010 consolidated fiscal deficit was 4.8% of gross domestic product, while its public debt was just under 40% of GDP. The country consequently pays less than Poland to borrow on capital markets—its benchmark 11-year bond yields 4.19%, 2 points below Poland’s 10-year bond.

But according to the Polish finance minister, markets fail to see that a third of Poland’s deficits and debt is a result of the country’s pension system reform that most countries in the EU, including the Czech Republic, haven’t introduced. Read More »

Poland should stay out of the euro zone for the next 20 years or more, says Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the Polish conservative opposition.

The situation of some countries in the euro zone shows that the euro isn’t beneficial for Poland. Instead of being replaced with the euro, the Polish currency, the zloty, should become the third reserve currency in Central Europe, Mr. Kaczynski said at a press conference Monday.

“Some say the zloty should stay for 10 years. I’ll go further and say that it should stay for at least 20 years,” he said. “The zloty should become the third reserve currency in the region, after the euro and the dollar.”

Many economists, including Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski, have said Poland was the only country in the European Union to avoid a recession in 2009, partly due to a strong fall of the zloty in the early 2009 that kept Polish exports competitive.

Poland is now growing relatively fast again and the zloty on the strong side, but the government is wrestling with an excessive deficit and growing public debt. Mr. Kaczynski said Monday that Poland should improve its fiscal situation by levying taxes on banking operations. Read More »

Poland’s general government deficit should fall to 3% of gross domestic product by 2012, as required by the European Commission. Most of the decline will result from a partial rollback of the country’s 1999 pension system reform, while austerity measures won’t play a significant role.

The Polish finance ministry plans to cut the deficit through a lower increase in spending, higher revenue and economic growth, and an overhaul of the pension system, Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski told a press conference Monday.

“I’m talking about action we’re working on already and there’ll be further action we’ll present at an appropriate time in order to have a deficit of 3% of GDP in 2012,” he said.

Poland’s full-year general government deficit for last year is still expected at 7.9% of GDP, Mr. Rostowski added, rebuffing a report in Polish daily Rzeczpospolita earlier Monday that the gap could be 8.2%-8.5%.

The 2010 budget gap, a narrower measure that excludes local governments and state agencies, was just under 45 billion zlotys ($15 billion), below the 52.2 billion zlotys originally projected for last year. Poland’s budget deficit this year should also be lower than 40.2 billion zloty projected in the government’s budget bill, Mr. Rostowski said.

The bill was passed by the lower house of parliament on Dec. 17. Mr. Rostowski didn’t explain why he thought budget assumptions less than one month old were already outdated. Read More »

Poland’s finance minister raised some eyebrows Wednesday when he said the zloty has been rising as the market welcomes his government’s plan of scrapping part of the private pension system.

“I think the zloty is supported by the improving public finances related to the pension reform,” Jan Vincent-Rostowski told reporters Wednesday. “The markets see that in a very decisive way and on a large scale we’re improving the situation of the public finances without putting the cost on future or current pensioners.”

The zloty hit an eight-week high against the euro on Wednesday on the government’s selling of the euro in the final days of December coupled with expectations of higher interest rates, with the second factor beyond Mr. Rostowski’s control. The planned pension overhaul, which Mr. Rostowski is hailing, has so far meant bad news to the markets, leading to a selloff of most Polish assets. Read More »

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